The invention relates to screening methods for identifying host pathogen defense genes and their regulating pathways, and for identifying drugs that enhance or stimulate the resistance of a host to pathogen infection or that block pathogen virulence.
Microbial pathogens use a variety of complex strategies to subvert host cellular functions to ensure their multiplication and survival. Some pathogens that have co-evolved or have had a long-standing association with their hosts utilize finely tuned host-specific strategies to establish a pathogenic relationship. During infection, pathogens encounter different conditions, and respond by expressing virulence factors that are appropriate for the particular environment, host, or both.
Although antibiotics have been effective tools in treating infectious disease, the emergence of drug resistant pathogens is becoming problematic in the clinical setting. New antibiotics or antipathogenic molecules are therefore needed to combat such drug resistant pathogens. Similarly, the discovery of drugs that maximize host pathogen defense responses is also warranted. Moreover, a need in the art exists for screening methods aimed at identifying and characterizing the host defense response, including the genes regulating the pathogen defense pathway that enable hosts to combat infecting pathogens.